LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Katie Raney

Minority Perspectives

A minority is something that I previously defined as one who was outnumbered.  However, over the course of the semester, I have found that it is an intricate concept possessing many distinct, unique characteristics. Objective 1 states that the minority concept may be defined as “a power relationship modeled primarily by some ethnic groups’ historical relation to the dominant culture.” A minority group is a collection of people who live in a society that has a structure set up to benefit another group of people.  The group of people that this benefits is known as the dominant culture.  In America this culture is seen in most cases as wealthy, white men.

There are some main characteristics that usually accompany the minority culture. According to Objective 1a. Involuntary participation “Unlike the dominant immigrant culture, ethnic minorities did not choose to come to America or join its dominant culture.”  Involuntary participation is a key factor with minority groups.  Throughout the Native American literature, it is obvious the disdain that they feel for the white men coming to their country.  In the handout received, “An Indian’s Looking Glass for the White Man,” readers can see how Native Americans participate in the American experience by force.  Apess questions, “Can you charge the Indians with robbing a nation almost of their whole continent, and murdering their women and children, and then depriving the remainder of their lawful rights, that nature and God require them to have” (Apess).  Apess’s words are haunting as you read them, knowing that the Native Americans have lost everything because of the white man’s presence in America.  This is also seen in “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.”  At one point within the short story, “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona,” Thomas remarks, “It’s strange how us Indians celebrate the fourth of July.  It ain’t like it was our independence everyone was fighting for” (Alexie, 63).  Thomas’s words make an excellent point.  In fact, the Fourth of July in many ways marks the suppression that would come to them. 

This is also similar to the Mexican-Americans, who were in a way also invaded by expanding America.  As the Manifest Destiny took place, America swooped in on much of the land that was previously Mexico’s.  The Mexicans did not just pick up and run back across the political border of what is now present-day Mexico.  They couldn’t.  They had a life in places like Texas and California, a Mexican life.  However, after America took control of the places, the land that was formerly theirs, along with all the customs of it, slowly changed to become more American, leaving Mexican-Americans in a difficult situation. 

Another attribute that marks minorities is found in Objective 1b. “Voiceless and Choiceless.”  This is shown in how the white settlers took the land from the Native Americans and the Mexican people of that time period.  We also see in the Declaration of Independence.  The document which declares how this country will be run describes “the inhabitants of our frontiers,” or the Native Americans, as “the merciless Indian Savages.”  Due to the fact they are referred to in this way, we can conclude the that Declaration of Independence was not set up for the Native American’s benefits.  In fact, this shows the opposite.  The Native Americans were unable to express opinions and the rights to their lands were taken away. 

Naturally, because the structure of society has left out the rights of minorities, it is only natural that the minorities might feel an animosity towards the authorities.  In Objective 2c "Quick check" on minority status, students are asked to think about the relationship with the law, or other institutions that minorities have.  Throughout the literature, Native Americans and Mexican Americans seem at odds with the law at times.  In “Witnesses, secret and not,” the father writes, “I was sober and the cops couldn’t believe it.  They’d never heard of a sober Indian getting in a car wreck.”  Though this may not represent hatred between the two entities, we can see the stereotypes that are present between the Native Americans and the law.  Also, in the poem “I Have Not Signed a Treaty with the United States Government,” the Native American writer Chrystos, pens “Everything the United States does to everybody is bad” (Chrystos, line 11). This does show the rebellion against the whole institution of America.  This idea is also represented in the poem, “So Mexicans are taking jobs from Americans.”  The frustration of Mexican Americans towards the government is seen.

Due to these characteristics of minorities, Mexican American and Native Americans have come up with alternate narratives to the dominant culture.  Mexican Americans, according to Objective 3c own the “Ambivalent Minority” narrative.  Mexican Americans “exemplify mixed feelings about whether they are a distinct, aggrieved minority group or an immigrant culture that will assimilate.”  These mixed feelings are readily seen in the novel Bless Me, Ultima.  There are some instances where we see that there are ideas of assimilation within the novel.  For example, his mother often wants Tony to say his prayers in English.  Tony says, “She liked to hear [him] read the catechism in English” (179), even though to the family English is “a foreign tongue” (57).  This shows us that there is a way of assimilation going on within the family.  Yet, when Tony goes to school and they other children see his lunch, “a small jar of hot beans and some good, green chilies wrapped in tortillas” “they laughed and pointed again” (58).  Though there is this idea of assimilation, Tony cannot seem to make his way through.  He says that he and the other Mexican Americans “struggled against the feeling of loneliness that gnawed at one soul” (59).  He and the other boys were lonely because they did not seemingly fit into the dominant culture. According to JH in the 2005 exam, “Rudolfo Anaya gives Tony much to be ambivalent about. He is forced to make choices between his mother’s and father’s families, whether or not to be a priest, whether he should only believe in one God.”  Again, we see the ambivalence of the Mexican American narrative.

The poem, “Elena,” also wrestles with the idea of assimilation.  Her children “go to American high schools,/ They speak English.  At night they sit around/ the kitchen table, laugh with one another./ I stand by the stove and feel dumb, alone” (Mora, lines 8-11). Here, we see the story of a mom who feels alienated because her children have begun to assimilate to the American culture.  Yet, for her, she just feels loneliness.

For the Native Americans, Objective 3b describes their alternative narrative as "Loss and Survival." The Native American losses are seen clearly in Alexie’s book about reservation life.  In one short story, a character says, “this morning I pick up the sports page and read the headline: Indians lose again” (179).  Though this is referring to their basketball team, for the character it seems personal and is just another representation of everything his people has lost.  We also see this in another short story when a character is talking about warriors and comments, “But it was too late to be warriors in the old way.  All the horses were gone” (Alexie, 63).  Here, this says that their old way of warrior life, along with the horses and land they possessed is gone. Even so, “Native Americans defy the myth of ‘the vanishing Indian,’ choosing to ‘survive’” (Objective 3b). Alexie accounts for this in his novel as well when he writes, “still, Indians have a way of surviving” and on page 11 the Indians are called “the eternal survivors.”  The Native American narrative also hopes that “the dominant culture will eventually destroy itself, and the forests and buffalo will return” (Objective 3b). This is seen in the poem “The Last Wolf.”  There are references to “the ruined city” (line2) and the “lighted elevators” being “useless” (line 8).  These are the Native American hope that one-day the land will be the way it once was and the dominant culture will go away.